The Alternatives to Practicing Medicine

We are all striving towards an M.D, and ultimately be a practicing physician. Most of our goals and dreams are to save lives, and make a difference in people’s lives; hence, why we spend this many years in training and sacrifice all of our other priorities. However, I recently came into a realization that there are administration positions in the medical field that give us an enormous rewarding experience in saving people and making a difference. Hospital administration jobs bring a world of opportunities to make policy changes and be involved in public health.

List of administration jobs that are benefitted with an MD degree are: directors and managers of departments, programs, and initiatives, epidemiologists, researchers, food safety inspectors, policy analysts, deans, professors and educators, and economists.

One of my goals was to acquire an MPH degree to add on to my MD degree. But, the fact that I will be 28 years in exactly one week and graduating this year from medical school, I don’t know if I want to keep studying for another two years, or start working and paying back student loans. However, I am not sure if I am going to regret not getting an MPH degree while I can, because when I start working and when I have a family of my own, I don’t know if I will have enough time to go back to school.

While I am going to sit on that thought of continuing my schooling or applying for residency, I hope that you all take into consideration ALL of your choices, before you make the decision on which path you are continuing.

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